Peoria, AZ Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

8 of the Zoning Ordinance starts from a flat prohibition: barbed wire is not allowed anywhere in the City of Peoria. The Ordinance then lists three narrow carve-outs. General Agriculture and Suburban Ranch zoned properties can use barbed wire outright, reflecting their working-land character. Temporary construction sites or yards can use it in any zoning district, but only if it is mounted six feet or more above grade, out of pedestrian reach. Commercial and industrial security fencing gets the same six-foot clearance exception. Outside those three situations, including every standard residential lot, a barbed wire fence or wall topper is a Zoning Ordinance violation regardless of height.

Electric fences are treated even more restrictively. 3 confines them to the Light Industrial (I-1) and Heavy Industrial (I-2) districts, and even there bars them from any property that has a dwelling unit on it, aside from a caretaker's residence. Where an electric fence is allowed, it has to be fully enclosed by a non-electrical fence at least six feet tall and no more than twelve inches away, cannot extend more than thirty-six inches above that outer fence, cannot exceed twelve feet in total height, and has to run off a battery-based energizer charged mainly by solar power.

Warning signs reading 'Warning - Electrical Fence' have to appear at least every sixty feet, and the fence needs a City-approved Knox key switch that lets emergency crews cut its power entirely, plus a Miscellaneous Building Permit from the Building Development Department before installation.